That recurring theme could describe more than a couple late season games for the Owen J. Roberts girls soccer team. The Wildcats had a chance to change that tune against Central Bucks East in a District 1 Class AAA consolation game Thursday night.

A 1-0 lead in the first half courtesy of forward Juliana Provini took care of the first part.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, Mariah Lichter, Shaun Kane and the Patriots took care of the second piece.

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C.B. East rallied from a goal down and had Owen J. under sustained pressure following Lichter’s game-tying goal with 10 minutes in regulation before Kane netted the winner early in the second overtime to advance the Patriots with a 2-1 victory and end Owen J. Roberts’ season.

C.B. East moves on to play Pennridge, a 2-0 winner over Pennsbury Thursday, in a District 1 consolation game that will determine the region’s last PIAA qualifier Saturday.

The Wildcats’ bid for a second straight to the PIAA Championships also ended in a season that began with such high hopes following last year’s run to the state semifinals.

In the end, a 17-5-1 season would be viewed a success by nearly any team. Yet falling in the final of the Pioneer Athletic Conference playoffs and missing the state tournament saw the Wildcats fall short of their goals.

“We weren’t good enough to win this year when it came down to it,” coach Joe Margusity said. “I can cite a bunch of reasons, but we just weren’t good enough to play a full 80-minute game.”

All too often of late the Wildcats games were more than 80 minutes, just like it was against C.B. East.

A team that found postseason magic time and time again last year, couldn’t reclaim any of that magic with the season on the line.

“I think we knew that it was a big game, but I don’t know, I feel like we weren’t there today,” OJR captain Emily Morgan said. “We would say something and we wouldn’t follow through with it.”

The Wildcats deserved their lead when Provini won a foot race against the C.B. East defense and popped a shot past Patriots keeper Paige Marcinkowski in the 20th minute.

“We always say for the first two minutes after scoring to come out strong and defend and I think we did that but I think then we sat back and it allowed them to take over the game,” Morgan said.

Defending wasn’t the problem. In fact, early on the Wildcats were passing crisply and were the better team. But the link play between the back line and the forwards became steadily bigger as the Patriots gained a foothold in the midfield while pressuring the ball more.

The Patriots increasingly gained momentum in the second half until they seemed perfectly due to even the score.

“They had the better part of it in the first half, but the girls saw it through,” said C.B. East coach Paul Eisold. “Kudos to the girls because they could have easily stopped playing (after going a goal down) and they chose not to.

“I knew we were gaining momentum and the game started turning. But when that happens you always became a little bit cautious because you become a little more susceptible in the back. Their No. 9 (Provini) is very fast, a very good player. You saw it on the first goal what she’s capable of.”

C.B. East got the equalizer when Kane sent a corner kick to the far post, which Nicole Pannella got a touch on and played back across the face of goal. Lichter was on the doorstep and drilled it into the empty goal to even it at 1-1 with 10 minutes left.

“On that corner where they scored I had said aloud, ‘I have a bad feeling about this,’” Margusity said. “We were absorbing too much pressure and causing too much pressure on ourselves. They are a good team, but they weren’t creating tons of chances. We were turning over the ball too much, we weren’t moving the ball enough.”

Earlier, Owen J. nearly took a 2-0 lead just before halftime on another race under the defense by Provini, but the Patriots defense recovered just in time. For C.B. East, midfielder Holly Moyer was excellent and created some of her team’s best chances, once having her cross hit the far post, another forcing a super reflex save from OJR keeper Aly Mento a few minutes before Lichter’s goal.

The momentum was firmly against OJR, especially late in regulation where C.B. East nearly looked destined to win it before OT.

The Wildcats saw it through to overtime and saw Marcinkowski save a quality long-range free kick from senior defender Gabby McKee late in the first OT after considering themselves lucky when C.B. East’s Taylor Mysza’s 20-yard free kick sailed high minutes earlier.

But just a minute and a half into the second overtime, Kane found herself in a race with a ball over top of the OJR defense, similar to the earlier goal scored by Provini. The attacker won again, Kane getting the game’s decisive touch.

Early leads fell by the wayside in every one of the Wildcats’ district games, the 3-2 win over C.B. South where Morgan got the game-winner in the final minute before having Downingtown West rally to a 2-1 win in the second half in the quarterfinals. So to see the same end occur against C.B. East was certainly tough to take for OJR.

“I think we definitely underachieved,” Morgan said.

But the disappointing end didn’t ruin the journey for Morgan.

“As a whole our team is great. I love each of the girls. Even on the field where we sometimes have our troubles, there was always unity. It’s a great group of people so in that sense we achieved pretty high,” she said.

NOTES

Mento, one of four senior starters for OJR (Morgan, McKee, Steph Tamburro), made six saves while counterpart Marcinkowski stopped five ... C.B. East had 12 shots total (eight on target) to OJR’s 7 (6 on target) ... The Patriots had the corners advantage, 5-3.

About the Author

Austin Hertzog is the Sports Editor of The Mercury. An Ephrata High School and University of Pittsburgh graduate, he is in his eighth year at The Mercury. He is a newlywed and an avid tennis player. Reach the author at ahertzog@pottsmerc.com
or follow Austin on Twitter: @AustinHertzog.